Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, an image, and additional information follow below.

All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 12-30-15.

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is
Virginia Water Radio for the week of January 4, 2016.

SOUNDS – 4 sec

Every year, at noon on the second Wednesday of January, the convening
gavels sound at the Virginia General Assembly, calling to order 100 members of
the House of Delegates and 40 members of the State Senate. Those 140 legislators typically consider 2000
to 3000 bills and resolutions, including the Commonwealth’s budget. Usually between 100 and 200 General Assembly
bills each year have something to do with water or with land uses that can
affect water. What topics, do you think, are or ought to be on the
General Assembly’s water agenda? Have a
listen for about 10 seconds to one possible list, and see if your choices are
there.

Those and other important water issues often get some
General Assembly attention. But, of
course, the Assembly has a lot more on its mind than just water. Taxes, health care, education,
transportation, and other big issues challenge legislators’ time, energy, and
negotiating skills.

Whatever the topic of legislation, however, state
legislators are always focused on what groups of constituents might be
affected. Have another listen for about
10 seconds to a list of some of the constituents the General Assembly must
consider.

Lots of topics, lots of constituents – plus, the sessions
move fast and the decisions can have widespread and important
consequences. Those are the legislators’
challenges. But Virginian citizens have a big challenge, too: following
the work of their elected representatives and voicing their opinions. Citizens can follow legislation and find
contact information for General Assembly members online at virginiageneralassembly.gov. By participating, citizens add their voice to the long history of debate
in Virginia’s legislature, which began in 1619 as the House of Burgesses.

Thanks to several Virginia Tech colleagues for lending their
voices to this episode. And we close
with a few seconds of a tune that may have entertained Virginia legislators as
far back as the 1600s: “Greensleeves,” performed here by Timothy Seaman of
Williamsburg.

MUSIC – ~ 13 sec.

For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit
us online at virginiawaterradio.org,
or call us at (540) 231-5463. Virginia
Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part
of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo
version of Cripple Creek to open and close the show. In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you
health, wisdom, and good water.

AUDIO NOTES AND
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The voices in
this episode were recorded in October 2015 at Virginia Tech. Thanks to those colleagues who participated.

The performance heard
in this episode of the traditional tune “Greensleeves,” from the 1998 album
“Celebration of Centuries,” is copyright by Timothy Seaman and Pine Wind
Music. More information about Mr.
Seaman’s music is available onlinehttp://timothyseaman.com/.

Previous episodes on the Virginia General Assembly are the
following:Episode143, 1/7/13; – Music for the Past and Present of
the Virginia General Assembly;Episode 147, 2/4/13 – Committees Guide the Flow of Bills in the
Virginia General Assembly;Episode196, 1/13/14 – The Virginia Legislature on its 396th
Opening Day, January 8, 2014;Episode 247, 1/5/15 – January Means State Budget Time in the
Virginia General Assembly;Episode 252, 2/9/15 –
Voting on Water in the 2015 Virginia General Assembly.

SOLS INFORMATION FOR
VIRGINIA TEACHERS

This episode may help with the following Virginia 2010 Science
Standards of Learning (SOLs):

Grades K-6 Living Systems Theme

6.7 - natural processes and human interactions that affect
watershed systems; Va. watersheds, water bodies, and wetlands; and water
monitoring.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, a photo, and additional information follow below.

All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 12-18-15.

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of December 28, 2015.

This week, music by a Blacksburg, Va., singer-songwriter helps launch our journey toward the horizon of the New Year. Have a listen for about 40 seconds.

MUSIC - ~43 sec

You’ve been listening to part of “On a Ship,” by Kat Mills, from the 2015 album, “Silver.”

The imagery and metaphors of the song allude to ships traveling the waters of the earth. But the real subject is the collective journey of humanity aboard our watery, space-traveling, planetary ship. The lyrics note that 21st Century humans on that crowded ship need supplies of clean air and water, food and sunshine, but that “most of all” we need qualities that sustain human relationships, such as love, trust, generosity, and even fun! Point taken; after all, humans are only mostly, not completely, made of water.

Thanks to Kat Mills for permission to use this week’s music, and we close this episode and 2015 with about 40 more seconds of “On a Ship.”

MUSIC – ~38 sec

For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463. Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close the show. In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

“On a Ship,” from the 2015 album “Silver,” is copyright by Kat Mills, used with permission. Accompanists on the song are Ida Polys, vocals; Rachel Handman, violin; and Nicholas Polys, banjo. More information about Kat Mills is available online at http://www.katmills.com/.

PHOTO

Large commercial ship on the Chesapeake Bay, as seen from
the Bay Bridge-Tunnel, October 7, 2007.

Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below.

All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 12-18-15.

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is
Virginia Water Radio for the week of December 21, 2015.

This week, we look back on 2015 with a medley of mystery
sounds. Have a listen for about 60 seconds, and see if you can
identify these sounds from the past year of Virginia Water Radio.SOUNDS - 61 sec

If you guessed all these, you get an aquatic A+! The sounds were the names
of three Virginia salamanders; Virginia Tech students sampling for freshwater
snails; bat-echolocation sounds; a Spotted Sandpiper; three of the names of
tropical storms in 2015; swarming adult midges; the Conway River in Madison
County, 20 years after that county’s historic 1995 flood; part of “Lesson from
an Egret,” by Alyson Quinn; and an excerpt from “All Hands Radio,” by the U.S.
Navy, which turned 240 in 2015. Thanks
to the Lang Elliott for permission to use the Spotted Sandpiper sound, to
Alyson Quinn for her egret essay, and to several Blacksburg friends for
providing their voices.
We close this 2015 revisit with a 60-sec sample of music heard on
Virginia Water Radio this year. Thanks to No Strings Attached, Bob
Michel, and The Steel Wheels for these pieces.
And to 2015: so long—soon—and thanks for the water!

MUSIC - 61 sec - “Minor Meander,” by No
Strings Attached; “The Oysterman’s Ball,” by Bob Michel; “Riverside,”
by The Steel Wheels; and “Ode to a Glowworm,” by No Strings Attached.

For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit
us online at virginiawaterradio.org,
or call us at (540) 231-5463. Virginia
Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part
of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo
version of Cripple Creek to open and close the show. In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you
health, wisdom, and good water.

AUDIO NOTES AND
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The bat-echolocation sounds were provided by Alexander
Silvis, a postdoctoral research associate with the Virginia Cooperative Fish
and Wildlife Research Unit andthe Virginia
Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, used with permission.

The sound of the Spotted Sandpiper was taken from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird
Songs-Eastern Region CD set, by Lang Elliott with Donald and Lillian Stokes
(Time Warner Audio Books, copyright 1997), used with permission of Lang
Elliott, whose work is available online at http://www.langelliott.com/ and the “Music of Nature” Web site, http://www.musicofnature.org/.

The excerpt of “Lesson from an Egret” is courtesy of Alyson
Quinn, from her blog “Winterpast” (9/21/07), available online at http://www.winterispast.blogspot.com/,
used with permission. Ms. Quinn made the recording after a visit to Algonkian Regional Park, located in
Sterling, Va. (Loudoun County), part of the Northern Virginia Regional Park
Authority.

The U.S. Navy’s “All Hands Radio” archive of podcasts is
available online at http://www.navy.mil/navydata/radioList.asp.
The excerpt heard here was from 11/03/15—“70 Year Journey Home Search remains
for fallen Airmen.”

“Minor Meander, from the 1999 album “In the Vinyl Tradition
Volume II,” and “Ode to a Gloworm,” from the 1999 album “In the Vinyl Tradition
Volume I,” are copyright by No Strings Attached and Enessay Music, used with
permission. More information on No Strings Attached is available online
at http://enessay.com/.

“The Oystermen’s Ball,” from the 2004 album of the same
name, is copyright by Bob Michel, used with permission. More information
on Mr. Michel's music is available online at http://www.bobmichel.com/.

“Riverside,” by The Steel Wheels,” is from the 2011 album
“Live at Goose Creek,” recorded October 10, 2014, at Franklin Park Performing
Arts Center, Purcellville, Va., and produced by Goose Creek Productions; used
with permission of The Steel Wheels. More
information about The Steel Wheels is available online at http://www.thesteelwheels.com/.

Please see the
following episodes (all are hyperlinked to the respective episode) to listen to
the sounds and music heard in this episode, to see additional acknowledgments
to people involved, to find more information and sources used, and to see suggestions
on correlations to by Virginia’s K-12 Standards of Learning (SOLs; Virginia’s SOLs
are available from the Virginia Department of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/).

Spotted Sandpiper and Baltimore Oriole, photographed along
the New River on April 29, 2015, by Robert Abraham of Christiansburg, Va.; used
with permission. Mr. Abraham’s photos provided
the idea for Episode
264, 5-4-15, A Bird Day on the New River.

Welcome to Virginia Water Radio

This site includes audio files featuring sounds and music that relate to Virginia’s waters, from the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean. Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, which is solely responsible for the show's content. Thanks to George Wills of Blacksburg, Va., for designing the Virginia Water Radio logo.